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July - August 2017
MODERN QUARRYING
11
ON THE
COVER
is among the best quality of its kind in South Africa.
“We are far from the market which is one of our
biggest disadvantages, but it has also forced us to
look at a different segment of the market. There is
a huge market on the Reef for acid mine drainage
and transportation is a major cost factor,”he says.“It
is the same for fluid gas desulphurisation (FGD) on
the new coal-fired power stations for which there is
a market of hundreds of thousands of tons of lime-
stone and lime. And again transport is a problem.
So we have come to terms with the fact that we
can’t compete in the general lime and limestone
market. Luckily we have a quality orebody and we
are focusing on the niche end of the market.”
The operation is a limestone and dolomite
mine similar to any quarrying operation but the
difference is at least 80% of the material that is
quarried and crushed goes through secondary and
tertiary beneficiation steps.
The raw materials are supplied mainly into
the glass industry. “We supply the three big role
players with their dolomite and limestone require-
ments. This is not exclusively; we do have compe-
tition in these markets. Our dolomite supplied to
PFG is the only suitable source in South Africa with
the alternative being in Namibia,” Terblanche tells
Modern Quarrying
. “We also supply part of Consol
and Nampak’s glass requirements on the lime-
stone side.
“The limestone and dolomite at Cape Lime
is processed through the same primary crushing
plant alternatively, depending on the require-
ments for the secondary steps. The three crush-
ing stages consist of the primary crushing plant
which is a Telsmith jaw crusher, the secondary is a
Sandvik and the tertiary is an Osborn 38H,”he says.
“The secondary and tertiary crushers have closed
loop screening and the plant is set up in such a
way that you can use a couple of diverters in the
chute work to produce any of the G products in
the same set up.
“The primary crushing plant hasn’t changed
much over the last few years, but the ‘latest’ addi-
tion is the Sandvik crusher in the secondary appli-
cation, which I must say, is a wonderful machine. It
has been running trouble-free for 10 years,”he says.
The operation has its own workshop, but wear
and tear is minimal because of the low silica con-
tent of the material. The plant is able to run for
a strategic acquisition
Old and new: The
fluid bed calciner
(FBC) on the left with
the old shaft kiln
pictured on the right.
Limestone feed stockpiling.
The aggregate stockpiles.